Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. ___________ Norah Jones released a new album, “The Fall”, this past November. Its first single is “Chasing Pirates.” It’s a great song with an infectious laid-back groove that really hooks into your brain. As a songwriter, that’s your aim – get a song out […]
Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. Anything that elicits an emotional response can be the source of a good lyric. We usually like to draw on positive, upbeat emotions, so you’ll find more songs describing love than any other. But there are other great song topics: social activism, the climate, […]
Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. _______ There’s a somewhat romantic notion out there that the best songwriters are the ones who just somehow create music without even knowing how they do it. It just flows. But that’s really not how it happens. True, there are songs that come together […]
Composers sometimes get the “I think I’ve heard this before” fear. It’s a very real issue because successful songs are a mix of innovative ideas with established songwriting practice. And with the balance firmly toward predictable, songwriting can present you with the nagging fear that you might have accidentally plagiarized your new song.
Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. __________ I truly believe that most of the time we worry too much about our chord progressions; they are the aspect that can get by with the least amount of innovation, and as long as they simply work, you’re fine. The I-IV-V-I progression has […]
Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. ___________ A song works best when all elements work together. No lyric, chord progression, or melody exist in a vacuum; they are like partners that complement each other. That means that all good songs are better than the sum of their parts. Your job […]
